The story of “Naxos” goes back to the 19th century. In 1871, on the site between Sandweg and Wittelsbacheralle in Frankfurt’s Ostend district, Naxos-Union built a factory to manufacture grinding machines. Over 100 years later the factory shut down after the company was sold to the Rothenberger Group and operations were moved to another site at the end of the 1980s. For years the site remained unused until 1999 when the City of Frankfurt purchased sections of it. In 2006 the City also bought the main factory building, which was a listed structure. This hall, called Naxoshalle, is the only remaining relic of the former industrial complex. Today it is the home of the Willy Praml theatre company. In 2008, the ancillary halls to the north and east then became the subject of an architectural competition organised by the local housing association, ABG Frankfurt Holding. The aim was to build around 180 apartments in place of the halls – two-thirds of them for ABG in the northern part, and one-third for a group of six smaller housing associations in the eastern part.

The design by Stefan Forster Architekten for the site to the north of Naxoshalle, envisaged a long, linear building that responds to the local context. In order to retain the characteristic trees along Wingertstraße, the building was set back from the street. The front-garden zone thus created operates as a buffer between the street and the building, providing space for facilities such as bicycle parking and areas for children to play.

The indented line of the building, with six tracts piercing the linear structure at right angles, loosens up the street face and enables maximum exploitation of daylight. The courtyards between these tracts contain the private gardens of the ground-floor apartments. Oriented towards Naxoshalle, the rear of the complex features continuous balconies and loggias, echoing the horizontality of the hall.

The principle of a “comb-like” structure, or indented outline projecting into the surrounding space, underlies not only the plan of the building, but also its height development. At six floors in height, the crosswise sections rise above the linear tract by one storey, a device that gives a distinctive rhythm to the whole complex, while also creating space for the terraces of the roof-top apartments. In the east, at the junction of Wingertstraße and Wittelsbacherallee, the edge of the block is conventionally finished off with a seven-storey corner building. The recurring element of the continuous clinker base storey emphasises the coherence of the residential complex. Half of the apartments are rental, the other half freehold; most of them are dual-aspect and, depending on their exact position, they have a generous garden, a loggia or a terrace.

View from the northwest of the building at Wingertstraße 22

Front garden zone on the Wingerstraße from the north

View along the front garden zone towards the southeast

View towards the northwest of the private gardens on the courtyard side